If you're in one of Cingular's 3G cities, the CU400 can help rid you of that annoying GSM buzz.

Are you tired of the dreaded GSM buzz? It's that annoying bip-bip-bip that comes through your car stereo or computer speakers every few minutes when your Cingular phone gets too close. If the buzz is your bane, then the LG CU400 might be for you. This midrange phone works on Cingular's new UMTS network. For geeks, that means higher-speed data transfers. But for the average folks who are the CU400's target market, it means potentially clearer calls, no annoying buzz, and, on the downside, much shorter battery life.

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A rounded, black flip phone with a smooth black plastic casing, the CU400 measures 3.4 by 1.9 by 0.9 inches and weighs 3.3 ounces. It looks a little like a squashed Motorola PEBL. The flip phone's hinge is tight and even a little dangerous; if you put your finger too near the corner, it'll get caught when the phone closes. Ouch! There's a monochrome screen on the outside and a sharp, bright color screen on the inside. The gray keys are slightly domed, big and comfortable.

This is primarily a voice phone, and, thankfully, reception is good. I found the handset had good recovery times switching between 3G and 2G networks. The quad-band phone's sound quality really seemed to depend on what tower I was usingin one neighborhood it sounded very nicely warm and rounded, and in another, things got blustery and scratchy. The device's speakerphone is particularly strong. Designed for Cingular's little-used push-to-talk service, it's quite loud and features an excellent built-in microphone. The CU400 connected to my Plantronics 510 Bluetooth headset easily, though there's no voice dialing. MP3 ringtones are fine and loud, too, and you can also use your own MP3s as ringtones.

Battery life will be a shocker for folks coming over from older Cingular phones. My recorded talk time of 3 hours 49 minutes is much shorter than you'd expect. But it's pretty much the same as with many Sprint and Verizon phones. In fact, Cingular's new 3G network has more technologically in common with Sprint's and Verizon's networks than with Cingular's older EDGE network.

There's one other pleasant surprise here: a 320-by-240, 15-frames-per-second video camera mode that you can use until you fill the 7MB or so of internal memory. This feature is especially surprising because it's attached to an otherwise unmentionable VGA still camera, which takes tiny, overexposed photos.

Transferring the photos and videos to a PC proved difficult, though. My CU400 had no problem connecting with a Mac and transferring files, but it refused to transfer files to a Vista PC, and two Windows XP laptops couldn't find it at all. A free program called Bitpim may work to transfer files, but the CU400 isn't one of its officially supported phones.

The CU400 also didn't seem to have Bluetooth dial-up networking capabilities, though you wouldn't want to use it as a laptop PC modem anywaythe phone can't hit the highest speeds available on Cingular's HSDPA network. On my tests I got download speeds of 280 kilobits per second. UMTS did make the included OZ e-mail client and IM client feel lively. These clients also let you access AIM, MSN, and Yahoo! IM, and AOL, AT&T, Hotmail, andYahoo!, e-mail boxes.

As this is at least a semi-high-speed phone, the CU400 can also be used to toy with Cingular's MobiTV and MobiRadio streaming radio and TV services. MobiRadio worked fine, but I found that MobiTV skipped a little sometimes.

The LG CU400 is a great bargain for folks who want to get rid of the GSM buzz, and right now it's free with a contract and rebates. But if you intend to do anything more than talk on your phone, I'd suggest spending $50 more and getting the almost criminally discounted Motorola RAZR V3xx, which just might be the best phone in America right now.

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About the Author

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 13 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, hosts our One Cool Thing daily Web show, and writes opinions on tech and society.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer. Other than ... See Full Bio

LG CU400

LG CU400

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